Most mornings, I just need a great cup of coffee to feel motivated to work. But I’m not the CEO of companies that revolutionized electric vehicles and made rockets reusable. Apparently, those guys need a little more incentive to stay motivated to do their job.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s pay package is back in the headlines. The automaker revealed in filing that it wants to hand Musk—already the world’s richest man and worth over $400 billion—another trillion dollars if he hits specific performance targets. Yes, a trillion. That’s about the entire GDP of the Netherlands, all going to one guy.
Welcome to the Friday edition of Critical Materials, your daily roundup of news and events shaping the world of electric cars and tech. Also on deck today: Rivian is cutting hundreds of jobs ahead of its R2 launch, and ICE agents just raided Hyundai’s EV plant in Georgia alleging unlawful employment.
30%: Elon Musk Could Become The World’s First Trillionaire
Photo by: Tesla
Last year, Musk pushed for a $100-plus billion pay package to continue being the CEO of Tesla. Without it, he warned, he’d take his AI and robotics ambitions elsewhere. But a Delaware judge tossed that deal out, ruling that Musk wasn’t entitled to that amount because of flawed negotiations and weak oversight. Tesla’s board, the judge said, was “beholden” to its CEO.
Even so, Tesla didn’t leave Musk empty-handed. The company awarded him “96 million restricted shares of the stock” valued at $29 billion. That payout was only the “first step,” Tesla said in a letter posted on X. A kind of small Christmas bonus and a “good faith” payment to keep Musk in the driver’s seat while the company worked on an even bigger check.
Now that check is so big that it’s more than the GDP of the vast majority of countries on Earth.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Tesla offered Musk a new compensation package that would push his stake in Tesla to at least 25%, according to a proxy filing from the company. The pay package in the filing is about $87.8 billion, but that would reach the stratosphere if Musk hits the performance targets Tesla listed.
Here’s more from Bloomberg:
Under the new plan, Musk must remain at Tesla as either CEO or executive officer responsible for product or operations in order to receive the shares, which are divided into 12 tranches.
To receive them, Musk has to hit 12 market capitalization milestones matched with 12 operational milestones, such as delivery of 1 million Optimus robots and 20 million Tesla vehicles, having 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation, and growing adjusted Ebitda to $400 billion.
The company would need to reach a market cap of $8.5 trillion as per the report, more than eight times its current $1 trillion valuation, which some analysts believe is already a bloated figure that’s highly dependent on Tesla’s success with robotaxis, AI and humanoid robots.
Musk himself has said in the past that the company’s valuation could be worth trillions if it succeeds with those things, or it could be worth “basically zero.”
We’re an EV publication, so I can’t speak much to the company’s humanoid robots, but the Model Y taxis in Austin now have human drivers in the driver’s seat after Texas tightened the leash on autonomous vehicles.
So, the robotaxis are now basically running as EVs with a Level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). Plus, AI scientists and robotics experts are skeptical of Tesla’s camera-only approach to autonomy, which they said isn’t as capable as a more comprehensive sensor suite including lidar and radar.
Tesla has proved skeptics wrong before with its EV success, but the world of AI and robotaxis is different. One injury or a fatal mishap could grind its operations to a halt. It’s going to be a monumental challenge to get a million robotaxis safely deployed. But with a trillion dollars on the line, I’m sure Musk is plenty motivated.
60%: Rivian Layoffs
Photo by: Rivian
It’s a turbulent Labor Day week for some of the country’s workforce.
Rivian is laying off “less than 1.5%” of its workers to cut costs and improve efficiency amid what’s been a tough year for the start-up, with the Trump administration’s tariffs and the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit.
“We have made some recent changes to the commercial team as part of an ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency for R2,” a Rivian spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. The laid-off workers can apply for different positions within the company.
Rivian is not profitable yet. Despite losing over a billion dollars in the second quarter, the company is moving forward with the R2 launch, which the start-up has pitched as a Tesla Model Y rival.
In a recent InsideEVs Plugged-In Podcast episode, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told us that the R2 launch “must go well,” signaling that it was a make-or-break moment for the company.
90%: ICE Apprehends Hundreds Of Workers At Hyundai EV Factory
Photo by: Hyundai
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided Hyundai’s EV plant in Georgia on Thursday, the Associated Press first reported.
Governor Brian Kemp and other officials have said that the company’s $7.6 billion Metaplant Georgia is the largest economic development in the state’s history. It’s where the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 are manufactured, employing some 1,200 workers.
The raids happened at the nearby battery plant, which Hyundai is constructing in partnership with LG Energy Solution. CNN reported that some workers were undocumented, while ICE is alleging “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”
Hyundai did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
100%: Can Musk Hit Those Targets?
Photo by: InsideEVs
One condition for Musk’s trillion-dollar payday is selling 20 million Teslas worldwide. So far, the company is estimated to have moved a little over 7 million EVs. With no new or exciting models in the pipeline, that 20 million target looks like a moonshot.
Which raises the bigger question: Should Tesla double down on its EV business—the core moneymaker—before chasing AI and robotics? Is it even possible to deliver fresh, compelling EVs while also trying to build humanoid robots and a fleet of robotaxis? And speaking of robotaxis, how realistic are a million of them when today’s Model Y taxis are still stuck at Level 2 and require human drivers behind the wheel?
Have a tip? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com
